Academic Senate Agenda – April 12, 2005 – Attachment C Steering Committee Report to Academic Senate –April 12, 2005 1. Meetings of the Academic Senate A) This is the third Senate meeting for which there will be only an electronic distribution via email and a few copies in print form available in the room. For this meeting we have distributed the Agenda and all attachments as a single WORD file for easier printing to all members of the Senate along with a small note within the email drawing attention to some of the more significant items on the Agenda. In addition, we have provided instructions on how anyone may obtain only the Agenda and attachments of particular interest to them. B) As there was an item on the last Agenda dealing with the creation of a Standing Committee on WID WAC and as it was referred back to committees and there were several committees involved in it, the Steering Committee coordinated communications on the matter and is presenting a resolution for your consideration and action directly after this report. 2. Mission Statement On the Agenda of this meeting is a proposal for a revision of the Mission Statement of the College. It is presented for the adoption of the Senate which is the only body under the Governance Plan authorized to do such and as the body that has adopted all previous Mission Statements. Article III. POWERS OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE Section 1. The Academic Senate shall be the voice of the academic community of Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York in all matters which shall appropriately be brought before it;… It was for this reason that the Steering Committee proposed that the group to develop the new statement be a group representing all branches of the community and formed as a Special Committee of the Academic Senate which itself includes the Administration, the faculty, the department chairpersons, student government and alumni and is the most representative body within the community. Instead the President went to the College Advisory Planning Committee to create a representative group that involved the Senate Steering Committee. That group now comes to the Senate for consideration of the current proposal. It is hoped that in the future action concerning the Mission Statement be taken within the province of the body that adopts such statements. 3. Collegial Governance The Committee of Academic Senate Committee Chairpersons next meeting will be a meeting with the President and his cabinet and representatives on the committees on May 11, 2005 in M­136 at 1pm. There will be a review of the work of this last year and some discussion of what we might expect for next year. 4. Standing Committees Committees for 2005­2006: The nominations to Standing Committees have been completed and the elections will take place at this meeting. This semester there are two new committees: Vendor Services and Distance Education. Even so there were more volunteers than there were positions. There were 104 volunteers for 82 positions on the Standing Committees. Facilitating Service to the Community through the Senate: The Steering Committee (2005­2006) may name those who were not nominated to a committee as liaisons of the Steering Committee to a standing committee as was done during this academic year. In this manner there should be few, if any, who volunteered who would not be placed on some committee of the Senate. The appointment of liaisons will start with those who are the most recent additions to the faculty.
18 Academic Senate Agenda – April 12, 2005 – Attachment C Workload Distribution and Recruitment: There were only eight full professors who volunteered for service on Senate Committees. We thank them for doing so and note them by name: Paul Azrak, Stanley Garfunkel, Tomas J. Gerson, Karen Grant, Philip Pecorino, Roza Rusinek, Nora Tully and Richard Yuster. All were given their first choice of committee except for Philip Pecorino who was given no nomination by the Committee on Committees. We are well aware that there are full professors who serve the College in many other ways: who are department chairpersons or deputy chairs and others who serve on the Faculty Executive Committee or who serve on many other committees and groups of the College including serving with the PSC. There were 24 associate professors who volunteered for service. 21 were nominated to positions by the Committee on Committees. Two were invited to special liaison service by the Steering Committee. Consider the table below only as an indication of the current rate of volunteerism and service to the community through Senate committees. It is not offered as an indictment of any group as it is by no means the whole story of faculty service. Rank/Title # from QCC Fact Book Fall 2004 Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors Instructors Lecturers Total Faculty w/o clt’s College Laboratory Technicians Totals 82 51 103 26 29 291 % of Total Faculty # who Volunteered Portion that volunteered from QCC Fact Book. 28.2% 17.5% 35.4% 8.9% 10.0% 100% 8 24 58 9 4 103 35 1 326 104 9.7% 47% 56.3% 34.6% 13.7% 35% Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors Instructors Lecturers Total Faculty w/o clt’s 2.8% College Laboratory Technicians 31% We are concerned about having a fairly equal distribution of the work needed amongst all faculty including college laboratory technicians. So, as to avoid inequitable amounts of work on faculty in certain ranks, we are in the process of developing a program for the recruitment of faculty for college service. Before we will invite or encourage faculty of any rank to volunteer for working on committees of the Academic Senate we have asked the Administration for information on all groups (committees, task forces, councils, etc…) at the College on which faculty serve and to report the names of such groups and their membership so we can ascertain where faculty are already serving on multiple groups. This work is currently in progress. Article III. POWERS OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE Section 1. Through its Steering and Standing Committees, the Academic Senate shall have the power to request and receive information appropriate to or necessary for the performance of its duties, from the President and members of the administration, from students and student organizations and from such other sources as may be appropriate.
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